Storm over La Torre

From the website that last year brought you the "Great Fire of La Torre" this year's near death experience came courtesy of an 8 or 9 hour thunder & lightning show.

Of course the real fun came after darkness had fallen but the air had been banging and crashing for a few hours before that.

I had been in Murcia City and started to drive back to La Torre at around 10pm. All the way home there where constant flashes of the storm but it wasn't until I was within a few kilometres of home that the rain grew very heavy and the flashing lightning became almost constant, often with multiple flashes across the sky.

I started taking pics at 1.30 when it was really going at it full blast. If you have ever tried to capture the moment you will understand that around a dozen good photos from around 200 taken wasn't a bad return.








If you have been paying attention you will wonder where the near death experience came into it. That was the threatened heart attack from the 200 photos that produced nothing of note.

;¬) keep smiling.

Another Photographic Look at Terrazas

I mainly intend to let the pictures do the talking with a few comments added.


This is one of 4 blocks on phase 2 and is closest to the roundabout which heads in toward the Town Centre location.

You can see that window frames have been fitted

Electric cabling is being added

A swimming pool in it's early stages!

The phase 12 blocks - progressing well

Again plenty of guys working

Back to the golf course

This is from the "Mar Menor" end of the course -not long ago it wasn't landscaped

Again looking at an area which a few months ago was full of weeds

Very encouraging progress being made. Still a long haul until there is a completed resort but if the progress is maintained or improved upon Terrazas will be a great resort in a few years time.

For those on Phase 1 it must be great to see that hopefully they will have neighbours to share both the joy & the costs of the growing resort before too long.

For the "Islanders" - well the wait goes on. Keep your chin up Howard, at least we both have somewhere to lay our heads in the meantime!

Davis Cup Semi-Final to be held at La Torre

I am sure that by now most of you will have heard that La Torre is to host the Spanish home semi-final in September.

Polaris are clearly delighted that they have pulled off this coup and the residents appear very happy, some rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a high rental week given there is an expected crowd of 12000 people per day.

PW have started work on a few different levels - at present they are replacing many cobbles on the roundabouts to make the place look well and there is also work at the rear entrance to the resort.

A tunnel that has been dug underneath the rear exit road is to give access to parking near the end of the practice ground and an entrance made in the perimeter wall. See the plan below.

The main work has been the total destruction of the practice ground - see below.



I enquired in the "pro-shop" and am assured that the practice ground will be reinstated after the tennis finishes. However given the amount of earth moved I suspect that we will end up with a flat practice ground rather than the undulating form as heretofore.

If you expand the pic above you will see the court area in the centre and it is more detailed below.

The event is from 18th to 20th September and for anyone interested I understand that tickets will be available on Ticketmaster.

There seems to be a general feeling that this will be good for La Torre & Polaris World in particular. If so it may give Terrazas building programme a boost with potential new buyers attracted.

Got a Penthouse on Phase 12?

Thanks to Stu & Jan for reminding me that what is currently being built is not, as I keep referring to it as, "Phase2". It is actually 4 blocks on Phase 2 & 5 blocks on "Phase12."

I am sure that anyone who has bought on these blocks will be well aware what is being built but if not - happy days you will be amongst the next raft of owners on Terrazas.

Thanks again Stu & Jan for keeping me right. All contributions welcome.

STOP PRESS

A quick addition, I was on the road from Roldan to Torre Pacheco today which gives a pretty good but slightly distant view of the rear of Phase2.

Almost crashed the car in amazement because it looks as if the brickwork on all the blocks has got up to penthouse level since my visit last week.

I intend to get a closer look over the next few days with my trusty camera to check it out but I'm pretty sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mrs Bangor faints in astonishment-lucky the passenger seat broke her fall.

P.S. had intended to post this on the recent update. The eagle eyed amongst you will no doubt see the look of astonishment on Mrs Bangor's fizzer at the news that the Town Centre is but a heartbeat away from completion!

Polaris say so - it must be true.

More soon

Another Recommendation

I like to give good news when it happens so here goes.

I recently bought a townhouse on La Torre which had never been lived in so needed to fit it out from scratch. I did a lot of research both on the internet and in person when I came out for 5 days at the end of May.

I eventually bought most of the major items from SFS - Spanish Furniture Supplies - in Pilar de la Horadada, just a short drive away and have found them to be excellent.

I believe that their quality is better than rivals I visited and the after sales has been excellent with no problem arranging visits to sort out minor matters, putting up pictures etc.

One of the best things is that Matt & Nicky, Mr & Mrs SFS, are really nice people to deal with and good fun with it. Also the communication was & continues to be excellent, with speedy replies to my endless emails.

A little tale before I finish. We liked a dining table that Matt has in the showroom but it is much too large for our townhouse. No problem and soon a prototype table was made with a marble base & glass top.

We absolutely loved it but given that we plan to rent the property we had slight concerns with the stability as, in a standing position if you leant on the corner the top would lift a little.

No problem - the table was collected, we discussed solutions, Matt offered to take it back and refund us (last thing we wanted) and soon we ended up with a fully functioning thing of beauty!

Go on, admit it - its gorgeous!!!









A final & pretty telling thing is that there were items which I thought I would buy elsewhere, going a bit down market and saving a few quid. Guess what, I couldn't find anything I liked cheaper and have gone back 2 or 3 times to buy them from SFS.

Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, I can heartily recommend Matt & Nicky as good people to deal with, excellent follow through with aftersales and with a fanastic range of furniture. I don't think you can do better and at the very least take a look at their website and if at all possible visit the shop in Pilar.

Success - made it past security!!!

I am delighted to report that with some able assistants & a little subterfuge I have a last had the absolute joy of setting foot on Terrazas.

It was a scorching hot day and of course we chose midday as a good time to sneak past a sleepy security guard who was getting ready for siesta.

Security breached, it was time to see Terrazas from a penthouse so it was up to El Don & Tracey's pad in block 13. Picking the lock was easy despite the 24 bolts on the door and up with the shutters for a nice view all the way down to the Mar Menor and La Manga.


Nice pad guys & I particularly liked the awning - bit of class there Howard, did Matt sort it out for you? After a fruitless search for El Don's piles of cash we headed back from whence we had come. I stopped for a look out the rear of the block and was surprised to see that not only can you see the neighbours from La Torre but El Valle was also shimmering in the heat further back towards the mountains.

Expand the pic & you will see La Torre closer with El Valle back towards the hills.

We went for a stroll heading past the swimming pool and down the cart path towards Phase 2.

A couple of surprises, firstly the golf course looks like it is going to be a joy to play but the surprise was what good condition some of the fairways were in. Not too many but Rome wasn't built in a day - a bit like Terrazas I suppose.







Heading down the path the second surprise was the progress that had been made in the few weeks since I was here last. There was considerable additional brickwork since I was there in early July & since the pics that Mark sent me which were posted at the end of July.

View of soon to be drinking den from the soon to be Town Centre!

A view over the Town Centre to Phase 2

It is no exaggeration to say that 2 blocks have been completed externally. These guys are serious. I can also tell you that the traditional August closedown has not happened here this year.

One of several convoys

There were guys building and convoys of trucks bringing materials 2 or 3 times whilst Mrs Bangor and I were strolling around.

Mrs B on to her broker or maybe her bookie.

Back to the golf course again. I noticed that the areas were the golf course is most advanced are in the "visible" areas near Phase 1 & the in progress Phase 2. It obviously makes sense to have it this way to have an attractive outlook for those already in residence but also from the sales point of view for anyone visiting the site.

My only thought was how easy will they find it to cobble together an accessible 9 holes when they eventually open part of the course. No doubt they have a plan but from what I could see they have a lot to do to get to that stage.

There appeared to be many more grassless fairways than grassed but again I couldn't help but be impressed with what I saw on the advanced holes both in terms of condition and the landscaping and layout.



I am here for another 12 days so will try to get another scoot around the outside and hopefully see even more progress.

Keep your chins up folks - it is certainly taking shape & looking good, albeit with a long way to go.

More soon and if anyone has anything to add in either comments or photos please leave a comment and I will contact you.